1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of removing a read/write slider attached to a flexure of a head suspension to read and write information on a disk incorporated in a hard disk drive.
2. Description of Related Art
A magnetic disk drive employ a head suspension on which a read/write slider is attached to read and write information on a disk. The head suspension has a flexure that includes a thin plate and wiring for signal transmission. To the flexure, the slider is attached through an adhesive. Hereinafter, the head suspension with the slider is also referred to as a “HGA (head gimbal assembly).”
In manufacturing of HGAs, each HGA is subjected to an examination of characteristics such as electrical characteristics and only HGAs that have passed the examination are delivered as accepted products. If a slider on a HGA is defective as a result of the examination, the defective slider is removed from the HGA to reclaim a head suspension. To the reclaimed head suspension, another slider is attached to reclaim a HGA.
JP2011-28813 A discloses a reclaiming technique to remove a slider from a HGA. In the reclaiming technique, a slider that is attached on an attaching surface of a flexure is rotated relative to the attaching surface by a torque in an in-plane direction of the attaching surface while heating the slider. With this, shearing force acts on an adhesive between the slider and the attaching surface. As a result, the slider is easily and surely removed from the flexure.
The reclaiming technique, however, rotates or displaces the slider, and it is impossible to be applied to a HGA including interferences around the slider. Namely, the reclaiming technique has a limit on removing a slider.
For example, a recent HGA may have a piezoelectric element around the slider to minutely position a slider. In the HGA, the piezoelectric element creates an interference unable to apply the reclaiming technique to the HGA. In this case, it is hard to reclaim a head suspension or HGA.